8,000 years of making wine but new in Brooklyn, by Brian Abate

The Tipsy Grape Wine Bar is providing Carroll Gardens with great wines and great music.

“I’m not originally from the neighborhood but my partner Zura used to come here for the restaurants on Smith St.,” said Alex Golant, co-owner of Tipsy Grape. “There’s also Clover Club which is a famous cocktail place that we liked and used to go to a lot. We’ve been coming here for over ten years and when it came time to open the wine bar, we looked here on Smith St. first.”

Both Golant and Zura work together as attorneys and both enjoy going out to eat or going to Clover Club in their free time. At first, they were looking to open a restaurant but about five months ago they decided on a wine bar instead.

“Another factor was that Zura is actually from Georgia, [the country next to Russia]” said Golant. He brought back a really good bottle of wine from Georgia and gave it to a friend of ours. Some time went by and then this friend’s wife tried it, loved it, and asked where to buy it. We had to say ‘You can’t buy it here’ because Georgia does not really import much wine into the U.S. After that we thought if people love the wine then we should sell it here.

“One of the big things is we didn’t want this to be a place for only people with extensive knowledge of wines. This is a place where we want everyone to feel welcome and comfortable coming in. We want to make sure everyone has a good time even if they aren’t coming in with a lot of knowledge about wines.”

I sampled a glass of saperavi, which is a red wine and it was sweet and smooth.

“A lot of people haven’t heard of it before but once they try it, they love it,” Golant said. “Saperavi grapes are exclusive to the country of Georgia and Georgia has a very long history of winemaking. It actually goes back 8,000 years and the original winemaking was using saperavi grapes. Also, our wines here are natural which means biodynamic, sustainable, and organic because that’s the tradition in Georgia. It’s been very rewarding having customers getting to know Georgian wines and responding so well to them.”

Golant recommended Chateau Buera, which is also from Georgia and his personal favorite. In addition to wines, Tipsy Grape also has live jazz music every evening from 7 to 9:30.

“We get to experience it firsthand, we see them putting their heart into it, and then we get to share it with the neighborhood,” Zura said

“It’s been great seeing people enjoy the atmosphere here,” Golant said. “The musicians have reached out to us and we’ve been able to develop a small following in the jazz community. A lot of it is through word of mouth. The most heartwarming thing is most of the musicians we have are people who live around the neighborhood. Usually, the musicians get most of their gigs in the city so they don’t have a chance for steady gigs here. A lot of times they can play in front of friends and family, so that’s been a great experience for us.”

While there have been a lot of positives, there have also been some challenges.

“We didn’t realize how busy we would be after opening up here until we experienced it for ourselves,” Golant said. “We’ve been learning as we go but we’ve been managing.”

“There are a lot of little details and no matter how much you prepare, there will always be some problems that come up,” Zura said.

Both Golant and Zura still work at their law firm (Golant Legal Group) where they are partners and begin their work day there, doing estate planning and estate administration. Afterward, they come to Tipsy Grape and check in on the musicians to make sure they are creating a nice atmosphere.

“A lot of artists have been priced out of Manhattan and one of our hopes is to create a music venue and a good community here for artists, especially those who have been struggling,” Golant said.

Though Tipsy Grape has only been open for a few months, it is already becoming an important part of the community.

“Whether or not you’re a wine connoisseur, or if you’re interested in the live music, we want everyone to feel welcome here,” Golant said.

Tipsy Grape Wine Bar, 110 Smith Street, (347) 588-3955